chapter 9

That week at home, Jake continued his binge. He made George take him to the supermarket so that he could buy more of the unhealthy food that he craved. This way, he would not have to walk to the shop every day, he would just have to walk to the kitchen. George could not believe how many cakes, biscuits and crisps he was putting in his trolley. He would never get through twelve x two litre bottles of coke!
Not only that, but there was half a kilo of sugar, three packets of butter, five different kinds of cheese, pate, pies, pizzas, quiches, sweet tarts, custard, three 500ml cartons of double cream, numerous bars of chocolate and several packets f sweets.
It was not his job to say anything, though, he was just the driver. If Jake had the money to pay for it and thought that he could get through all this trash, then it was up to him, but his career in the public eye would be over.
As soon as he got home, Jake filled up the fridge and started eating. He was not allowed to cook, but he was allowed to heat things up. The other new thing this week was that if something was savoury, he had to add dairy produce to it, even if it already contained it. If something was sweet, he had to add cream or sugar to it. He did not think about portion size, he just ate until he was full, slept, then ate when he felt hungry again.
Before he started Elaine's programme, he would consume between 1,000 to 1,500 calories per day. Last week, his calorie intake had increased dramatically to between 3,000 and 5,000 per day. This week it had increased again to between 7,000 and 8,000 calories per day, and he was getting no exercise at all.
This week, he didn't even think of exercise. It didn't occur to him to go for a run or go to the gym. The didn't think about doing extra workouts to burn off all the extra calories he was consuming. He still thought he had a high metabolism. He still thought he was burning the extra calories off. When he looked in the mirror, he saw a handsome svelte young man. He had stopped wearing his non-stretchy clothes though and lived in his running gear. The other clothes were simply too uncomfortable, they had become too small. He was not getting any bigger.
The reality was he was definitely filling out. He was gaining more flesh all over, his muscles were becoming less defined. His stomach muscles had given up trying to hold him in any more. Now after a large meal, he had a definite pot belly that even his stretchy tops struggled to cover.
Sunshine realised something was going on when she saw all the rubbish in the fridge. She'd cleaned his room last week and picked up the empty pizza boxes and other wrappers. Was he deliberately gaining weight for a new role? Or was he doing it for charity or a bet or something.
Jake did not know what to says. He was not trying to gain weight for charity or a stage role or anything, He was just enjoying his food for once. He wasn't putting any weight on. He had a high metabolism. However, he thought that Sunshine would not understand his reasoning. He told her he was trying to gain weight for a film role. He racked his brains trying to think of some more details to make his lie sound more plausible, but he could not think of anything. In the end he said "it's all a bit hush-hush. I can't say anything yet because there's lots of things that have not been finalised yet. Filming isn't due to start until next year, so I've got plenty time. I'm just glad I got the job!"
Sunshine seemed to accept the explanation. She supposed it was one of the pitfalls of being an actor. You might need to be skinny for one role, muscled up for another character, then be expected to put on weight to portray someone else. She knew he could just put on a 'fatsuit', but, as good as they were, they were not as good as real flesh. She worried that when he finished his fat man role, he would starve himself to get his weight back down again. Yo-yo weight gain and loss could put a strain on the heart.
Still, he seemed to know what he was doing. It was his decision. She hoped the film company were paying him plenty money for the inconvenience.
"Do you want me to cancel your appointments" she asked. "You have the Olivier awards on Wednesday. That's a red carpet do. Then there's the dinner Lady Marlborough is holding to raise money to send old spectacles to Bangladesh on Thursday."
"Oh just cancel them," he said taking a bite out of a pork pie. "Cancel them all, I think I'm going to step out of the limelight for a bit, until the film's released. The gossip columns would have field day if they thought I was gaining weight, especially if they thought I was gaining deliberately."
But of course, he wasn't gaining weight at all, was he? Just because he'd changed his diet a little bit did not mean that he would gain weight!